ZAMBOANGA CITY, 20 October 2007 — Unidentified gunmen ambushed yesterday Muslim politician and his driver in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said.

Jamasali Abdurahman, a special spokesman for jailed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari, was attacked while he and a relative named Wishar Oma were walking in the village of Buanza in Indanan town at around 6.40 a.m., police said.

“We are still trying to determine the motive for the attack,” said Superintendent Ahiron Ajirim, the provincial police chief, told Arab News by phone from the island of Jolo. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Indanan is a known stronghold of the MNLF.

Abdurahman ran for a seat in the House of Representatives during the May elections, but lost.

He helped secure the release of 21 Asian and Western holidaymakers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants in Malaysia’s island-resort of Sipadan in 2000. The hostages were later freed in exchange for large ransoms, reportedly financed by Libya.

Abdurahman served as interior secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) after Misuari was elected regional governor in 1996, the same year the rebel group signed a peace deal with Manila.

Misuari is currently in jail on rebellion charges after his forces tried, but failed to overrun a military base on the island in year 20001. Misuari, claiming that the government was reneging on the peace agreement, fled to Malaysia, but was arrested there and later deported to Manila.

Police say Abdurahman was with the group of MNLF fighters led by Ustadz Habier Malik, who held hostage Marine Maj. Gen. Mohammad Dolorfino and defense officials and soldiers early this year in Jolo Island in an attempt to force Manila to free Misuari.

Despite their ordeal, Dolorfino and Jamasali continued to work together to defuse the tension between the military and MNLF combatants in Sulu.

Ustadz Jain Jali, MNLF spiritual adviser in Sulu, said as grand uncle, he always reminded Jamasali to be careful.

“I already advised him to be careful at all times. Now we can’t do anything but accept his fate,” he said. (With input from Inquirer News Service)